South Carolina Upstate Photonics Center

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This is a three-year regional initiative involving an Alliance comprised of three South Carolina technical colleges, Greenville Technical College, Spartanburg Technical College and Tri-County Technical College and Clemson University's Center for Optical Material Science and Technologies (COMSET) in the training of photonics technicians to support the photonics field as an emerging research, development and manufacturing industry in seven target counties: Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, and Union.The applications for photonics in the 21st century are increasing in an ever-changing world that relies more and more on fiber optics to conduct business, perform laser surgery, and monitor environmental issues, to mention a few. These applications and the implementation of new photonics developments requires technicians who understand how integrated systems operate and who can support engineers at all levels. The Alliance uses a variety of resources, including collaborations with institutions/organizations knowledgeable in photonics, past experiences in the design and implementation of SC's ATE Center of Excellence, etc., to focus on building the capacity for Upstate South Carolina to compete in drawing photonics research and development companies to the Upstate. Four objectives are identified: 1) to increase the awareness of photonics as a career choice at the high school level; 2) to increase faculty capacity to develop distance learning and remote laboratories for photonics courses; 3) to align photonics courses to existing engineering technology curricula through the development of a scope and sequence; and 4) adapt content materials developed at the Center for Organization Research and Development (CORD) with a problem-based emphasis and ready the material for distance learning. The design elements of this project address the need to focus on attracting diverse population groups to the photonics industry. This is particularly true in the high school awareness component. Lessons learned from the SC ATE Center of Excellence project are particularly beneficial in this initiative since recruitment of women and under-represented minorities are identified as one of four critical success factors. The Alliance will disseminate the results learned from these activities through presentations at national, regional, and state workshops and conferences.